Supernatural's Jensen Ackles Tackles a New Character — and We've Got Clues!

Before this season of Supernatural is over, Jensen Ackles will be taking on a character other than Dean Winchester — and at the show’s PaleyFest event on Tuesday, TVLine gathered hints that it will be someone familiar to longtime fans.

Over the years, co-star Jared Padalecki has had the opportunity to play Lucifer, and Gadreel inhabiting Sam’s body, while Ackles has only ever portrayed Dean. (Not that there’s anything wrong with that!) “The biggest stretch was Demon Dean, but it was still Dean,” he recently noted to EW.com. However, “that is all going to change soon,” he added. “Something big’s coming.”

And that something big will find Ackles playing someone viewers have seen before, “many years ago,” executive producer Robert Singer told TVLine on the PaleyFest red carpet. Meanwhile, EP Andrew Dabb predicted that fans will be both “happy and terrified” when they find out the identity of the character. Could it be the archangel Michael, for whom Dean was supposed to be the vessel in Season 5? “No comment,” Singer replied.

Whomever the character is, Ackles described the upcoming role switch as daunting and challenging, but also an opportunity he looks forward to tackling. “I’m going to have to do some research, and then I’m going to have to bring it,” he said.